April 07, 2012 11:07 PM CDTApril 08, 2012 02:46 PM CDTTornado tore apart Forney family’s home and the life they began there

Tornado tore apart Forney family’s home and the life they began there

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Mona Reeder/Staff Photographer

Five-year-old Sarah Ventura cried at the first sight of her destroyed home, her father says. “She’d go over to the rubble and pick out her dollhouse, or she’d say, ‘That’s my brush, I want it,’ even though it was all dirty and full of insulation.”

FORNEY — Like so many others in North Texas, the brick house at 2437 Deacon Drive was built with the middle class in mind.

It was built for families and kids, with four bedrooms and two baths, and a backyard begging for soccer balls and swing sets.

2437 Deacon Drive was built for people like Juan and Margarita Ventura.

“You could say this was our dream house,” Margarita said, standing, arms crossed, eyes sweeping the splintered remains of what once was her kitchen. She sighed and managed a weak smile.

“All we can do now is salvage what we can and let the rest of it go.”

The Venturas, along with about 650 other families in North Texas, have begun clearing the physical and emotional debris left by a rare set of “super cell” storms that marched across the region Tuesday, spinning off as many as 14 tornadoes.

“You can’t help but think, ‘What are the chances? Why us?’” said 27-year-old Juan, sitting in his parents’ Mesquite living room, his 2-year-old son Adrian sprawled on his lap. “The first day we walked into that house, it was just pure happiness because it was the beginning of our family.”

Damage from the storms was widespread — extending from the little town of Joshua in Johnson County to a rural outpost named Cash in Hunt County. In between, twisters touched down in Kennedale, Arlington, Lancaster and Oak Cliff. No one was killed or seriously injured.

But the most powerful cyclone — with winds from 136 to 165 mph — ripped through Forney, a city of about 14,000 people located 20 miles east of Dallas. Based on the path of debris and eyewitness accounts, the funnel cloud tracked right through what had been the Venturas’ living room.

The beginning

Juan and his wife grew up in East Dallas, in tight-knit working-class families. They passed in the hallway of Mount Auburn Elementary School, played in the same parks and rode their bikes on the same streets, but they never really knew each other until the day Juan walked into Rutherford Veterinary Hospital in Fair Park.

Margarita, who is three years older than Juan, was a veterinary technician at the clinic where she still works today. Juan had just graduated from high school. His moon face and wide smile caught her eye. He was drawn to her kind heart and her gentle touch with sick animals.

“He was always sweet, and we both worked the night shift,” Margarita said. “We got to know each other and it just took off from there.”

They dated for three years and had a small wedding with family and friends at the Mesquite home of Juan’s parents.

“We really didn’t want one of those huge, elaborate weddings because we were always saving,” said Margarita. “We wanted to get a house, to start building a place for our little family.”

They looked at model homes in Rockwall and Rowlett, but they knew right away that the Diamond Creek subdivision in Forney was right for them. They put down a deposit after their first visit.

After growing up in the chaos of the city, they both longed for a sense of rural tranquility. They liked the wide streets and neatly groomed neighborhood park. Neighbors waved. Children wobbled down sidewalks on skates and bikes with training wheels.

“We could see ourselves here,” said Margarita. “It was a place for young families like us. I never worried about whether I had remembered to lock the front door.”

Juan, an electrician by trade, is also licensed to work on heating and air conditioning equipment. He uses both skills as a maintenance worker at Dallas Love Field Airport, and he leaned on his expertise during a continual series of remodeling projects on his home in Forney.

Actually, he began modifying the house while it was being built in 2006.

At night, after construction crews left, he would add junction boxes in his attic and string wires for new electrical outlets, cable boxes and high-speed Internet connections. He installed three-way light switches and snaked speaker wire across the foundation before crews laid carpeting.

“If you know your floor plan, it really helps to get wires through all the tight spaces while the walls are open,” he said. “I’m like my dad; we’re always working on our house.”

Margarita was eight months pregnant with their first child, Sarah, when the Venturas moved into the single-story home in August 2006.

She said she’ll never forget bringing her daughter home from the hospital that first day — walking into that big, new house, with boxes piled high and dreams of the future ever higher.

“It was just real special and quiet time with my daughter,” Margarita said. “We walked into the living room and her swing was set up in there, and we all just laid down and went to sleep. It was really the beginning of our new life.”

Over the next six years, the Venturas made the 2,600-square-foot home their own. They bought bedroom suites and matching sets of towels for the bathrooms.

In the weeks before the tornado, Juan had just finished painting his 5-year-old daughter’s room pink. He also had changed the fixtures in the hallway bathroom and hung new towel racks.

“We were about to start renovating the kitchen,” he said. “We do things little by little. I might buy paint with this paycheck and other materials with the next paycheck, and when we get everything together, then I’ll start working.”

‘It’s going to be hard’

Juan got up Tuesday morning with an eye on the weather.

Forecasters were calling for rain, so he decided not to water the two new red oak trees in the backyard.

After a quick kiss in the kitchen, Juan left for his 45-minute commute to Love Field.

Shortly after, Margarita began her loop with the kids — one to day care and the other to elementary school — before heading to the University of Texas at Dallas, where she’s taking classes to become a speech pathologist.

It wasn’t long before the storm clouds gathered, and television radar showed an ominous creeping blob of yellow, orange and red bearing down on Forney.

Juan watched the weather without concern. In fact, he was glad he hadn’t watered his young trees.

He was escorting passengers from a storm-safe room at Love Field back into the terminals when his boss called him on the radio: Forney had been hit hard. He should go home.

“I thought maybe it would blow a few shingles off the roof or it would knock my trees over because the roots weren’t established,” he said. “Maybe, at worst, I’d have to put my fence back up.”

Margarita watched the storms on a friend’s iPad while seeking cover in a conference room at UTD. She left for home as soon as the all-clear was issued.

Juan got there first — parking several blocks away at the request of a police officer and running the rest of the way to his house.

“There was more and more damage the closer I got to my house,” Juan said. “A couple streets from my house, I ran into my neighbor, and he said, ‘Man, your house is destroyed.’ And I said, ‘No way, I can see the roof.’”

Then he looked again. He realized the back half of his home was gone.

Juan sprinted the last few yards. He was confronted by rubble and a sinking feeling — his dog Oscar, a black boxer, was nowhere to be found.

Margarita and his daughter arrived soon after.

“My wife was pretty much OK, but my daughter was just crying, I think because she was scared,” Juan said. “She’d go over to the rubble and pick out her dollhouse, or she’d say, ‘That’s my brush, I want it,’ even though it was all dirty and full of insulation.”

A neighbor found the Venturas’ dog with minor injuries.

The Venturas met with an insurance adjuster Saturday. They’ve been told it could take as long as nine months to rebuild.

Juan said the next step is to find temporary housing, for him to get back to work and help his children find comfort in new routines.

“Right now, I’m not looking forward to the next six months,” he said. “But after that, we’re going to be OK.

“It’s going to be hard, but we’ll just put our home and our lives back together.”

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